Microcrystalline cellulose has been used in the food industry as a popular component in stabilizer systems for ice cream and other frozen food products. U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,104 (Battista) teaches the use of microcrystalline cellulose as a texturizing agent for an ice cream-like product. Although the product exhibits good functionality, microcrystalline cellulose suffers from some negative consumer impressions linked to the use of processed cellulose, especially from wood pulp, as a food ingredient.
It would therefore be advantageous to produce a microcrystalline starch product, which behaves functionally like its cellulose counterpart, but possesses the positive labeling attribute of being viewed as more a "natural" or "usual" food ingredient in the eyes of the consumer. Microcrystalline starch is based on resistant starch technology; for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,271 (Iyengar et al.) teaches a starch-derived, food-grade, insoluble bulking agent which is produced by heating, optionally debranching and then hydrolyzing a polysaccharide and subsequently washing the product to remove enzymes or acids, water-soluble sugars and glucooligosaccharides. The particular processing steps ensure a small particle size, which is critical to the smooth texture of a product such as ice cream.